For about the past three years I have spent an hour or so every four to six months in the office of an old curmudgeon of an allergist in my small town in Ontario. He’s close to retirement, but he’s the best in his field bar none and he has pioneered several allergy testing techniques that have been well-documented, so I sit through the annoyance I’m about to describe.

Every visit starts the same way:

Him: Are you still writing about that crazy sport?

Me: Yep.

Him: I told you I tried to watch it once and couldn’t even get through ten minutes.

Me: Yeah, you mentioned that a few times.

Him: I just don’t understand how two men who are apparently of sound mind can get into a ring and try to knock the other guy unconscious.

Me: Well, there’s quite a bit more to the sport than that. The object isn’t to…

Him: …And how any doctor could sit there at an event and watch these two guys try to give each other brain damage. What kind of medical professionals are these guys and what kind of a society are we living in?

Me: Well, boxing is accepted by the same society and the biggest goal of a boxing match is to land as many punches to your opponent’s head to try to knock them out. MMA is different in that…

Him: …I’m not a boxing fan, but at least that sport takes a certain amount of skill and has rules.

Me: Well, I should probably get going. My meter is about to expire. See you in December.

I learned early on that no matter what you say to someone like Dr. C, it isn’t going to change his mind about MMA, so why bother trying. I also figured out that the opinion of an allergist about the sport or the fact that he thinks I should find another one to cover isn’t going to persuade me to become a hockey writer.

What you have to remember is the same group and its American, British and Australian equivalents have called for bans on boxing since 1983 and look how far their uninformed biased opinions have gotten them.

What really makes this latest initiative by the CMA more laughable than worrisome is the fact that the head of the British Columbia Medical Association, Dr. Ian Gillespie, who tabled the motion last week admitted that he has not only never seen an MMA match, he also is unsure what the safety and death rates are regarding the sport.

"When I asked the president of the BCMA how many ring deaths there had been in the sport of mixed martial arts, compared with a comparable combat sport such as boxing, his response was: "I actually don’t know."

Not surprisingly, Dr. Gillespie also informed me he has never seen a mixed martial arts competition.

As for Dr. Gillespie, his official online biography says he’s a fan of kayaking and "adventure travel." I hate to inform him there have been 1,500 canoe and kayak fatalities since 1993 in the U.S. alone, yet doctors are not calling for a ban on those tipsy, floating instruments of death."

Proving that Gillespie isn’t the only medical association head who doesn’t have a clue about the sport, outgoing CMA president Dr. Anne Doig had this to say about her group’s decision to oppose an activity that would directly lead to maiming and injury:

“We are concerned when people engage in activities the sole purpose of which is to pummel, kick, punch, scratch, whatever methods they use, until either somebody is seriously hurt or injured, or somebody cries uncle and submits,” Doig said.

“This is an activity that leads to serious issues, including damage to people’s brains, and we must speak out against that,” Doig said in a conference call before heading out to get hammered with the association delegates who were in town for the conference.

The UFC’s Director of Canadian operations, Tom Wright, pointed out the lunacy of calling for a ban of a sport without researching the topic with figures to illustrate your point. Wright pointed to the 2006 Johns Hopkins study that showed there is no higher incidence of head injury in MMA athletes than in other contact sports like hockey and football, which have yet to feel the useless wrath of the CMA.

“Clearly potential for injury is no different than it is in football and hockey, and indeed is significantly less than it is in boxing,” Wright, the former commissioner of the Canadian Football League, told 680 News. “I’m not saying that our sport is not a contact sport and not a combat sport. All we’re looking for is to make sure we have an open dialogue with these physicians to ensure that we are being treated the same and provided the same opportunity to work with these organizations to promote health and safety (as the CFL and NHL).”

Doig acknowledged that the announcement really means about as much as War Machine saying he’s a changed man as the real decision to ban the sport “is up to policy-makers,” and considering more provinces including Ontario are on the verge of sanctioning the sport in the Great Fight North, the vote and the news are really just a non-story.

Cagepotato Comments

Showing 1-25 of comments

Hey your Small town in Ontario sounds EXACTLY Like my small town in Ontario...Crazyness :P Taking it you must be down southern way?? Wish Northern Ontario would get some type of MMA going now that its kinda gettin more accceptance. We have one small club here but all the guys end up going over to Quebec for any type of action as its closer then going to Toronto. All in All I hope they can get these fuckin stupid issues sorted out. Now that all the old fucks are getting out of power an the younger generations are stepping up into power positions things should start to get better sooner then later.

flyingogoplata- August 26, 2010 at 10:40 am

Oh and I mean "frolicking" as in skipping around, not "fro-licking" which could be dangerous for other reasons.

flyingogoplata- August 26, 2010 at 10:38 am

Finally someone is speaking out about kayaking and canoeing...and don't even get me started on how many people get eaten by bears while hiking, or bitten by ants while having a picnic or getting stung by a bee while frolicking in a meadow.

On a positive note, I hear the CMA is going to provide free bubble wrap and helmets for all of us to wear.

What, I can suffocate wearing bubblewrap? Better ban that shit too.

RwilsonR- August 26, 2010 at 9:08 am

+1 to the man formerly known as GUI-uh-TEEN. I'm share jimbonics bewilderment on how 'CanadaPotato' escaped all of us until now.

Huddy is right, too. Fucking do-gooders that want to tell other people how to live will be the end of all of our freedoms. Well... Canada never really believed in a lot of those to begin with. Especially that whole free speech thing.

shitbag- August 26, 2010 at 7:01 am

Fookin Canucks!

itsgalf- August 26, 2010 at 5:43 am

I got to the part where you admitted you were from Canada and then I stopped reading

Randle McMurphy- August 25, 2010 at 6:58 pm

Move to the head of the class Mr Huddy.

Bob Reilly- August 25, 2010 at 6:06 pm

I am the president of the Canadian Non-medical Association and we condone sanctioned violence, so it cancels out. Carry on as if you were normal.

BuckWild- August 25, 2010 at 5:57 pm

It is hard to believe that their athlete of the year was GSP

jimbonics- August 25, 2010 at 5:48 pm

Guillotine with the pwnage of the day.

I have NO idea why I haven't thought of CanadaPotato before. To me, that's some funny ass shit.

D1ck4- August 25, 2010 at 5:33 pm

Oddly enough Doing and the CMA condone X-Arm.

GILL-uh-TEEN- August 25, 2010 at 5:12 pm

@fatbellyfrank it's called a purple nurple... don't act like you don't know...

imabigfan- August 25, 2010 at 5:04 pm

nice piece. golf clap, sir.

fatbellyfrank- August 25, 2010 at 4:55 pm

“We are concerned when people engage in activities the sole purpose of which is to pummel, kick, punch, scratch, whatever methods they use, until either somebody is seriously hurt or injured, or somebody cries uncle and submits,” Doig said.
......................................................................................................................
Obviously an MMA expert, "somebody cries uncle" bwahahahahahahah, especially when your caught in a complex move like a nipple gripple bwahahahaha

MyFightWiffaCheeto- August 25, 2010 at 4:55 pm

Another Canada story... South Park taught me Canada isn't a real country anyway.

Mr_Misanthropy- August 25, 2010 at 4:54 pm

I concur, Mr. Russel.

El Guapo- August 25, 2010 at 4:52 pm

Pleeeease bring your weather! Leave the brushfires, tho. Anyway, I'm talking to President Mounty Mooseknuckle as we speak. Could take a few hours. Not sure how long that is in metric time, but I'll let you know as the story unfolds. Now returning to your regular scheduled programming..

fatbellyfrank- August 25, 2010 at 4:47 pm

^ if you hurry this one up I could prolly make it down to Boston for the weekend, and can we bring our weather?

El Guapo- August 25, 2010 at 4:39 pm

I got it! Let's trade Canada for Australia. Done and done..

rockhuddy- August 25, 2010 at 4:33 pm

The problem isn't that the doctors don't understand the sport, the problem is that they feel that two willing participants shouldn't be able to fight each other for money. Forget fights, I don't even have a problem with duels, and they're potentially lethal. As long as all participants are there of their own free will, why should anyone care? No one except those involved has to worry about a thing.